Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-19-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20021219.1.4-017"2
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".
Mr President, I will be very brief, because I know that time is flying by and that you have a very full agenda.
I would like to add my congratulations to those of all the Members who have highlighted Mrs Pack’s remarkable work and her vigorous, tenacious endeavours over many years, which have, at last, brought success. Today one might say, her baby is being taken to church to be baptised.
I would like to respond briefly to a number of specific questions which have been asked.
Although it has not been possible to include in the text Parliament’s suggestion that schools competitions could be staged and that winners could be present at the ceremony of the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, I can let you into a secret. My co-workers are already working with the International School Sport Federation to see what can be done to accommodate Parliament’s request.
I am fully aware, Mr President, that Parliament does not want an avalanche of studies on the matter. That is all well and good, provided that it does not turn round afterwards and say that studies would have been useful after all. While I acknowledge the need for practical work, I still feel that it is necessary for an evaluation to be carried out afterwards, as, moreover, happened in the case of the European Year of Languages, which was such a success that I feel we can use it as a model in terms of what to do and what not to do.
I can let you into another secret. I have already received numerous requests from the major European sports federations, who want to contribute to or participate in the project or to work with us. They all want to be involved and to make their contribution to the enterprise. They will not ask us for money, for they have much more money than we have! The EUR 11.5 million budget is intended to encourage, to set in motion a driving force, for it is civil society, sportspeople and schools which will actually do the practical work.
A number of questions have been asked relating to the European Year of People with Disabilities, on which we are actively working. The Special World Olympics will take place in summer 2003 in Dublin. In this context, we will fund the hiring of Irish volunteers to make this major sporting festival for people with disabilities possible. This is an experiment which will be repeated throughout 2003 and 2004: getting young volunteers – 100, 200, 300 volunteers – from all the countries of Europe to work together in the service of sport during major events of great symbolic importance. The first experiment, in Dublin, will thus bring together 200 volunteers from all over Europe. This will be repeated in Athens for both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics, and for all the major sporting events where the voluntary contributions, good will and idealism of our young people can come into their own. In other words, our young people will take centre stage.
You can therefore see that practical measures are currently being taken. As I promised you, you will be kept informed of developments, and I am also counting on your contribution so that we can make this year the year of all the citizens in your regions and your countries, for, as representatives of the citizens, you have a major role to play in this sense."@en1
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